With a goal of reducing school and district MCAS proficiency gaps by 2017, Director of Curriculum Brad Smith reported on this year’s scores and discussed results at the last meetings of the Somerset School and Somerset Berkley Regional School committees. Overall, Smith said the Somerset School Di...

With a goal of reducing school and district MCAS proficiency gaps by 2017, Director of Curriculum Brad Smith reported on this year’s scores and discussed results at the last meetings of the Somerset School and Somerset Berkley Regional School committees.

Overall, Smith said the Somerset School District “mirrored statewide trends,” with a few high points as well as decreases to take note of. He said the regional high school results showed enough solid improvements to boost Somerset Berkley Regional High School to Level 1. It was at Level 2 a year ago.

In 10th-grade English language arts and math and ninth-grade science, only 1 to 2 percent of students were at the warning or failing level.

Conversely, 98 percent of ELA students, 92 percent of math and 85 percent of science/physics students met or exceeded the level of "proficient," with science jumping 16 percent from 69 percent the prior year, Smith reported.

“It was a good improvement,” he said.

The state proficiency average was 91 percent for ELA, 80 percent for math and 71 percent for science.

Students performing at an advanced level increased 24 percent in ELA and 16 percent in math from 2012.

“We’re certainly on the right track,” he told the regional school board.

Smith said both the regional and Somerset districts have “targets of continuous improvement” first established in 2011 and new accountability standards put in place in 2012 for the next several years.

He said the new system allows student growth to be tracked. For instance, the progress can show that “even though the student is not proficient, it shows growth at all levels.”

High School Principal Jahmal Mosley echoed his comments and those from Regional School Committee members that, “It’s a nice accomplishment.”

Mosley emphasized that each year’s test takers are “a different group of students,” and success with the MCAS, SATs, graduation rates and the percentage of students entering four-year colleges are all part of their goals.

When asked what the high school has focused on, Mosley cited “critical thinking skills across all curriculums.”

With students at all levels, Mosley said, officials have discussed and worked on methods to overcome student distractions and improve concentration on tests.

With “baseline” achievements being high, such as 98 percent ELA proficiency in 10th grade, reaching target goals can be more challenging, Smith said.

For the latest results, proficiency and student growth were “above target” on 10th-grade ELA and math.

On graduation and dropout rate targets, in 2011 meeting the target needed improvement was met in 2011. The annual dropout rate improved below the target in 2012.

For ELA, “our performance was relatively unchanged from the previous year,” Smith said. The biggest proficiency improvement was in fifth grade, while sixth grade's score decreased.

In math, proficiency gaps narrowed for high-needs students at the elementary and middle school levels and improved overall districtwide, with 63 percent of students reaching proficiency.

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For middle school, 74 percent were proficient and 8 percent at warning levels, compared with a 20 percent state average in the warning category.

District and school levels were established in 2012, and most of the state is scoring in the Level 1 or Level 2 ranges, Smith said.

South Elementary School remained at Level 1 the past two years, although Wilbur Elementary School, as previously reported, dropped to Level 2 from Level 1 a year ago.

North and Chace Elementary schools and Somerset Middle School remained at Level 2. The Somerset district is at Level 2, with a “composite proficiency index” of 87.9 for ELA and 83.5 for math.

Among a string of goals Smith listed for the Somerset district were focusing on 2014 targets to narrow gaps and increase student growth at all levels; highlighting “common core standards” in math and ELA, with emphasis on sixth-grade ELA with transition to middle school; continuing to provide academic support and guidance services for at-risk students, and focus on kindergarten through second grade reading skills and writing, and reading comprehension at all levels.